A Prunedale man accused of shooting a goatherd and one of his flock pleaded not guilty to drastically reduced charges Friday.

Phillip "Bud" Dexter, 87, faces felony charges of reckless discharge of a firearm and cruelty to animals, along with gun enhancements. Both counts carry possible prison terms that cannot be served in county jail under the rules of California's prison realignment.

On Tuesday, Prunedale resident Cesario Diaz suffered shotgun pellet wounds after he and a female goat were shot near the edge of Dexter's land.

Dexter's attorney Larry Biegel said that when the goats wandered onto Dexter's Avery Lane property on Tuesday, it was the culmination of a long-running problem with a neighbor and his wayward animals. By day's end, multiple sheriff's patrol cars swarmed the residence and deputies arrested Dexter on suspicion of first-degree attempted murder.

"Premeditated!" Dexter exclaimed when recalling the initial charge after his arraignment Friday.

Sporting wide red suspenders and a flannel shirt, Dexter said he did not intend to shoot anyone when he fired an antique 16-gauge shotgun to frighten off marauding goats.

Nonetheless, several shotgun pellets struck Diaz and one of the goats he tended.

Diaz was treated at Natividad Medical Center for injuries to his right elbow, left rib cage and the back of one knee, according to a sheriff's deputy report.

Attempts by The Herald to reach Diaz on Friday were unsuccessful.

Dexter, who remains out of custody on $40,000 bail, said his only previous criminal offense was running a stop sign in the 1950s.

He said he moved to his family's 52-acre property near Elkhorn after retiring from a career with defense and aerospace giant Raytheon Co.

Dexter calls the property "paradise," but adds it is "nothing fancy" — a place where he likes to cultivate fruit and fix up old Fords.

"I save old junk and make it good," he said.

The current saga began when a neighbor's goats kept wandering onto Dexter's property and helping themselves to fruit from Dexter's trees.

Biegel said the goats belonged to a renter on an adjacent lot, and were cared for by Diaz.

Thanks to some "big gaps" in the fence between the two properties, the goats would "go to the lush pastures of the Dexter orchard," Biegel said.

Dexter called animal control officers who, he said, told Diaz to pen the animals or he'd have to pay $200 to get them back if they were seized.

"It worked for a while," Biegel said. "And then it didn't work." Dexter again saw "these predators" devouring his avocados, Biegel said.

The last time the goats intruded was on Tuesday, when five of them wandered onto Dexter's land, pursued by Diaz.

Dexter said he picked up the antique shotgun he had owned since he was 16 years old, and fired the two shots — above the goats' heads to scare them off, he said.

But in the area's hilly terrain he didn't see that Diaz and another goat were behind the others in a wooded area, he said.

He said he wouldn't have fired "if I'd seen anybody there."

"I wouldn't shoot at anybody," he said.

According to a sheriff's report, the shooting took place around 2:30 p.m. although deputies were not summoned until around 6:20 p.m.

Reading from the report, Biegel said a deputy wrote that sometime after Diaz was shot, the goats' owner noticed something was wrong with one of the animals.

"One of his goats was complaining of pain," the sheriff's report states.

The owner felt a pellet inside the goat's teat and massaged it until it came out, the report said.

Officials say the goat is doing fine.

Diaz's wounds, although apparently superficial, were not as easily treated. He ended up at Natividad, where a deputy interviewed him and reported that Diaz said he may have wandered onto Dexter's land in an attempt to "escort the goats off the property."

Biegel said the property lines are not well marked and he did not know which plot Diaz stood on when he was shot.

"Obviously, Bud feels bad," he said.

But he added, "If this case goes to trial, we're going to call as our first witness Dick Cheney."

The former vice president famously shot a 78-year-old acquaintance during a 2006 quail hunt in Texas. The man was hospitalized with hundreds of birdshot pellet injuries. Cheney was never charged in connection with the incident, which officials deemed an accident.

At Dexter's arraignment Friday, prosecutor Chris Harter asked that special conditions be placed on his release from custody.

"We ask that he not contact the victim," Harter said. "Or his goat."

Judge Julie Culver granted the request.

Speaking loudly and slowly because of Dexter's poor hearing, Culver asked if he understood those terms.

"Stay home," Dexter answered while nodding in agreement.

Harter did not say why her office chose to file the lesser charges

After Dexter's arrest, Sheriff's Sgt. Mike Burns said he didn't think Dexter intended to "shoot at the gentleman who was hit." But he said, "Anytime one person shoots another, it is pretty serious."

Dexter, who no longer faces life in prison, suggested that his current situation is yet another of life's challenges.